1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to computer enclosures, and particularly to a computer enclosure having a hood readily attached thereto and detached therefrom by means of a fastener.
2. Related Art
A conventional personal computer enclosure generally includes a chassis, a hood and a bezel. The chassis is used to hold components such as motherboards, interface cards, a power supply and disk drives. The chassis is generally U-shaped, and comprises a base, a front panel and a rear panel. The hood is also U-shaped, and has a top panel and two opposite side panels depending from the top panel. The hood is slidably attached to the chassis along rails formed on opposite sides of the chassis, and then secured to the rear panel with screws. Finally, the bezel is mounted on the front panel.
Securing the hood to the rear panel with screws is unduly complicated and time-consuming. Furthermore, it is difficult to simultaneously align both side edges of the hood with the respective rails of the chassis.
Another kind of conventional hood is secured to chassis by means of engagement of locking catches of the hood with slots of the chassis. However, disengaging this kind of hood from the chassis is complicated and laborious.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a computer enclosure which has a fastener for readily mounting a hood to the enclosure and readily removing the hood therefrom.
To achieve the above-mentioned object, a computer enclosure in accordance with the present invention comprises a chassis, a hood and a fastener securing the hood to the chassis. The chassis comprises a rear panel, and a pair of side panels defining a plurality of splits therein. An abutting wall is formed inwardly from the rear panel. An L-shaped tab extends inwardly from the abutting wall. The hood comprises a recessed portion. The fastener includes a handle pivotably attached to the recessed portion, a latch pivotably attached to the handle and engaging with the tab of the chassis, and a spring urging the latch to engage with the tab. When the handle is pivoted from a locked position to an unlocked position the latch is disengaged from the tab and is removed away from the rear panel to cause the handle to move the hood relative to the chassis thereby releasing the hooks of the hood from the splits of the chassis.